Thursday, December 15, 2011

Just got the phone call that the school principal (who is most definitely NOT my pal) got wind of our Shakespeare project, decided that he too was uncomfortable with the potential content, and that since it is not part of the state curriculum, in short, we can't do it. Period.

Since my kids have to actually spend a few years in this school system I will limit my opinions on the subject, but I'm sure you all can gather what they may be.

I want to thank everybody who came flocking to my rescue, flooding me with no end of resources on how we might be able to make it work. We all know that the subject can be taught at this level, many of you have experience doing exactly that. And we all know that it is a *good* and *positive* thing. I just happen to have hit a dead end this time.

I'm temporarily down, but I'm very much not out. Watch this space for future efforts to climb back up that hill.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. Creeps in this petty pace from day to day... On the other hand, a lucky escape, perchance? You are not respopnsible forthe sometimes overly protectiveand proscriptive nature of modern schooling. Keep your own children engagedwith Shakespeare, and if a chancecomes in future to engage others'then that'll be a bonus.

He damned sure will when I hunt him down and introduce myself next week. I would like to find out his official logic for denying this, and see whether I can work with him on a more accurate interpretation of what we were attempting.

If he saw it as taking away from existing curriculum work to do an unscheduled series on the subject of Shakespeare, then he'd have a point - but that is not the case. I was thinking of it more along the lines of the "Who is your daddy and what does he do?" segment of guest speakers that includes the local dentist and bug expert. All I wanted was a block of time to talk about my favorite subject. If worse came to worse I'd even be willing to chuck out all the performance content if it meant that I could still at least get in there and bring up the topic of the man and his poetry.

What grade and subject do you teach? I've been through this many times myself... I now lead a Shakespeare Outreach program for elementary schools. Some enlightened principals welcome us, others (no comment) sound more like the person who shut down your program.... You can see what we do at www.shakespeare-winedale.org, the Outreach link. best,cs